Geon debt load bought by investment firms; Roger Kirwan resigns

US firm KKR and Australian fund manager Allegro have jointly acquired the debt package, which has a face value of $350 million, from Bank of Scotland International. The portfolio of loans includes exposure to Geon.

It is unclear how the debt sale could impact the trans-Tasman print group, as it refused to comment to ProPrint.

However, Geon chief executive Graham Morgan told ProPrint last month that the debt sale was“no different to moving our mortgage”.

According to an Australian Financial Review article, which Allegro has published on its website, the joint bid fought off rival offers from Goldman Sachs, Macquarie and distressed debt hedge fund Anchorage Capital.

“The price paid for the loans is said to be just under 50c in the dollar,” according to the AFR.

News has also surfaced that Roger Kirwan, Geon’s general manager of national operations, is set to depart by Christmas.

Geon refused to shed any light on the management reshuffle and Kirwan was unable to comment.

However, an anonymous source told ProPrint that Geon staff had been “left shocked and upset today when Graham’s right-hand man and heir apparent Roger Kirwan [was] announced suddenly as leaving ‘before Christmas'”.

Kirwan joined Geon in 2006, following more than five years with flexible packaging supplier FPS International.

He took on the national operations role alongside national general manager of sales and marketing Glen Draper in October 2011.

The most senior operations role was previously filled by chief operating officer Scott Thompson, who left Geon in February.

[Related: Ups & downs of Geon]

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